By Chris Fournier July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar was little changed against its U.S. counterpart after a government report showed consumer prices posted an annual decrease last month for the first time since 1994. The Canadian currency, known as the loonie, traded at C$1.1183 per U.S. dollar at 7:31 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.1171 yesterday. It reached C$1.1118 two days ago, the highest since June 12. One Canadian dollar buys 89.42 U.S. cents. “It’s becoming a little tougher to create stronger levels in the Canadian dollar,” said C.J. Gavsie, Toronto-based managing director for foreign-exchange trading at BMO Capital Markets, a unit of Canada’s fourth-largest bank. “We barely budged,” after the inflation data. “The number came out as expected. This should be another day led by equity tip offs.” The currency is headed for a 4.1 percent increase over the past five days as corporate earnings at U.S. companies top estimates. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 slipped 0.4 percent. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities has surged 7 percent this week. The consumer price index fell 0.3 percent in June from a year earlier on lower gasoline prices, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The index rose 0.3 percent from the previous month. Both numbers were in line with the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The loonie outperformed all of the 16 most-traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg against the U.S. dollar so far this month as investor appetite for higher-yielding assets increased. It was the worst performer in June amid concern a global economic recovery would be delayed. The Bank of Canada is scheduled to meet July 21 on interest rates. Bank Governor Mark Carney halved the key rate to a record low of 0.25 percent in April. In June he said at least twice the “rapid rise” of the nation’s currency, which gained the most in May since 1950, could threaten the economy. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net

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